Check how much of your money your supplier has

Before you do anything else, just take a look at how much of your money your existing supplier has. Currently around 5m households have more than £450million of their own money sitting in the coffers of the big gas companies alone. That’s about £40,000 in interest per day that they are earning on your money that you could have sitting in your account earning interest instead.
This is the result of over-payment on direct debit, that leads to a cushion of surplus cash building up with the energy company.

Ask for your money back

But there is no reason for you to leave too much sitting there. It is easy to get it back – you just have to ask. The energy company has a duty to return any extra money you have built up in its account, and that way it can be working for you, rather than it. However, the majority of us – four fifths – do not ask for this money back, which is a mistake.

Compare rates regularly.

It really pays to simply keep an eye on the tariffs available, to keep your energy bills as low as possible. A quick search on the energy comparison tool takes seconds. The switch itself takes no more than a few minutes.  For a family in Kent using EDF Energy as a supplier for both gas and electricity and paying £900 a year by direct debit, shows they could save £213 – a quarter of their bill – just by switching suppliers to npower’s Go Fix rate.
The amount will vary around the country depending on the deals being offered, and also because of how you pay the bill.

Consider new entrants to the market.

It’s all the same energy generated on the same grid so it doesn’t matter who your supplier is. You just need to make sure you’re with the cheapest one. Some of the new entrants are lesser known as brands but their energy is just as good as anyone elese. For example Ovo energy has just launched. You probably won’t have heard of them, but you might find that they are considerably cheaper than your current supplier. It’s always worth comparing new suppliers.

Pay by monthly direct debit

Monthly direct debit is the most cost effective way to pay, as the energy companies would prefer you to use this method, so they will give you the greatest discounts for paying this way. But beware, there is a reason for this – the energy giants are making a lot of money out of you.

Save on your bills

You can also save money on your bills by using an energy monitor to see how much power you are using, and also by making sure none of your bills are estimated.

By telling your energy provider what your meter readings are on a regular basis – at least once a quarter, if that is how you are billed – then you will only being charged for what you are actually using.

Give your meter reading online

Speak to your provider to find out the best way to tell it your meter reading, and you could save yourself some hassle. It might be possible to send the reading online, saving yourself time in a phone queue as well as money.
Npower has even launched a new service – ‘Go Save’ which is a new alert service to remind customers managing their accounts online to send an up-to-date meter reading so they are not paying more than necessary.